, brian. >>> overseas now. six days from nowpopebenedictwillstep down. then it will be time for the cardinals to elect a new pope, and some american cardinals who will be heading to the conclave suddenly find themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. nbc's anne thompson with us tonight, once again from the vatican with this story. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. as pope benedict finishes his lenten retreat, the vatican is preparing for this historic transition. with many questions, such as who will lead the church, far from answered. a week before pope benedict retires, and there is still no clear front-runner to succeed him. however, there is a long shot. new york's cardinal timothy dolan. >> i'll do anything to get you guys in church. >> reporter: praised in catholic circles for his persona. his efforts to revitalize the church and fighting the obama administration's contraception coverage mandate. but this week, dolan was deposed about how he dealt with abusive priests as archbishop of milwaukee. what impact is this going to have on card

in a few minutes. >> thank you, rob, see you in a bit. >>> new insight this morning into whypopebenedictmaybe stepping down. the respected italian newspaper reports the pope made the decision after getting the results of an internal investigation into scandal at the vatican. among the things reportedly exposed in the 300-page report, blackmail, corruption and sex at the vatican. the newspaper says the pope ordered the investigation last may after his butler was arrested. the pope plans to personally hand over the report to his successor. meantime there is a mounting pressure in the u.s. and italy to keep cardinal roger mahoney away from the conclave to choose the next pope because of his role in shielding sexually abusive priests. the associated press is reporting that italian newspapers have profiled cardinals whose presence at the conclave would be "an embarrassment to the vatican." among them are irish cardinal sean brady, and belgian cardinal godfried daniels. the cardinals that will elect the next pope are said to be more conservative than the ones that elected pope benedict back

will hear arguments next month. >>>popebenedictxviwill give its angelus prayer when he gives a blessing in front of a crowd. cnn will be airing live when it happens tomorrow morning, the 6:00 am eastern hour. the pope steps down officially on the 28th. the vatican is hoping to have a new pope in place before easter. >>> for just a moment, imagine your child has hearing loss, but you cannot afford hearing aids. more than 1.5 million kids in the u.s. live in silence because their health insurance doesn't think they're essential. cnn's george howell sat down with 7-year-old hayden mckenzie for a look at the drastic measures he and his family have taken for him to hear. >> reporter: for 7-year-old hayden mckenzie, it takes a little more time in the morning to get started. and for his twin brother, colby, it takes more patience. >> our big question of the day is, you have a hearing aid on. can you hear me? i was thinking about this last night. it felt like a cell phone commercial. can you hear me? can you hear me now? >> reporter: he started losing his hearing when he was 4 years old, a crip

topopebenedict's decisionto quit. senior international correspondent ben wedeman joins me from rome. ben, the vatican is suggesting that this is an attempt to influence cardinals who will choose the next pope. first, where did this story come from? >> reporter: this is from a newspaper that is claiming that on december 17 a commission of three cardinals who had been charged by the pope with investigating wrong did doing within the vatican submitted to the pope a 300-page red bound report on what, as you said, appears to be a network of gay priests being -- very windy here today -- being blackmailed by a network of male prostitutes in rome. now the vatican has come out very strongly saying that these reports are unverified, unverifiable, or completely false. now the worry is that somehow this report will affect the decision or the person who these popes elect. now we do know that there is pressure within the vatican to really clean up house, to sort of elect a new pope who will have the strength, the willpower, and the administrative ability to sort of put an end to a lot of the beha

shows thatpopebenedictiswell liked and the majority of emergency 64%, to be exact, support his unusual decision to abdicate next week, while considering a popular pope with the 54% favorability rating he is 13% less popular than his presses predecessor likability rating. not personally as popular, pope benedict xvi does have something on pope john paul ii, the catholic church experienced a 6% increase in favorability, up from 56% during pope john paul ii's tenure and that's what the survey says. >>> coming up, she beats out her husband in almost every popularity poll. now michelle obama is back on the road and we'll look at what the second term may hold for the first lady. >>> first, the latest from south africa on where the olympic star accused of murder is now a day after being released on bail. you're watching msnbc. i've always had to keep my eye on her... but, i didn't always watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care... i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they eve